CLINICAL EDITOR’S COMMENTS:
The authors describe how using technology in play therapy assisted a 9-year-old girl process her cancer journey and beat her statistical odds.
playroom was different than others’ might be. Minecraft™ offered Zoe a virtual safe space and world outside of herself where she could begin to process her cancer journey.
Children and Technology The authors’ reluctance to include technology in the playroom is a documented reaction among play therapists (Altvater, Singer, & Gil, 2017). Additionally, there is considerable concern growing among parents, teachers, and pediatricians about how much technology in a child’s routine is appropriate (Palmer, 2016; Ward, 2013). The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP, 2016a, 2016b) suggests that parents set limits surrounding technology for their children based on their children’s individual needs.
At the same time, children are immersed in a technological world. Technology pervades their existence and is integrated into their daily lives in both subtle and obvious ways. In a Pew Research Center report, Anderson and Jiang (2018) shared that 95% of teens have access to a smartphone, and 45% are online “almost constantly” (p. 2). Even preschoolers have ample access to technology in the home (Marsh et al., 2015). It is important for adults to understand that children, as digital natives who have never known life without devices like laptops, tablets, and mobile phones, and who have always had easy access to the Internet, may view technology differently than they do.
Technology and Play Authors of recent works agree that technology can claim a legitimate place in children’s play, and, furthermore, that technology is rapidly and dynamically changing children’s play. Some researchers suggest that
play through technology, or “digital play,” is just as valuable a mode of intervention as traditional modes of play (e.g., Edwards, 2013; Slutsky & DeShetler, 2016). Reid (2000) discussed varying opinions on the use of games in therapy. Kottman, Petersen, Kottman, and Lavenz (2018) detailed the use of video games in play therapy, providing therapists with vocabulary, questions, activities, and metaphors to use with consumers
Clinicians from some theoretical orientations believe a child’s game behavior is a projection of his or her feelings and conflicts. Others value games for establishing comfort and for gathering information. Clinicians from still other theoretical orientations argue games are an interference to therapeutic work. With the addition of technology to the discussion, it is of digital play. Nevertheless, Reid (2000) argued that playing games is part of a child’s world and can be used clinically for expressing catharsis, mastering anxiety, communicating, and promoting insight. With their virtual interfaces, technology-based games like Minecraft™ can provide a kind of mastery play that is similar to that found in a physical world (Marsh, Plowman, Yamada-Rice, Bishop, & Scott, 2016).
Technology as a Means of Catharsis in
Play Therapy For Zoe, technology offered an escape from her reality, which was helpful world through technological means distracted her from the severity of her pain. In the playroom, it was apparent that she used technology for the Catharsis, the expression and release of emotion followed by increased awareness and understanding (Nichols & Efran, 1985), has played a role throughout the history of psychotherapy.
Freud (1920) believed catharsis was a central component of play, because play allows children both emotional expression and resolution of unconscious anxiety. Drewes and Schaefer (2014) argued that play contributes to the process of catharsis through the psychological distance gained through symbolic play and the safe and supportive environment of the playroom. Additionally, the positive feelings associated with play offer balance to the negative emotions expressed, and they aid in the child’s overall psychological wellbeing (Drewes & Schaefer, 2014). Through the safe space of the playroom, Zoe used the technology-based Minecraft™ game to process and to rectify the internal conflicts related to her cancer diagnosis.
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